Sauerkraut for luck

Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
When I was in Miami last week a woman from Peru said her people wear special colors of underwear for good luck on New Year's Day: red for love and yellow for wealth. She said she will wear both colors.

In our house growing up we ate sauerkraut on Jan. 1 for good luck, and I have always made it as an adult too. It's simmering now. Here's the recipe, simplified from my old Perla Meyers' From Market to Kitchen Cookbook:

2 T. butter
1 T. vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 C. finely minced onions (I chopped up one big onion -- more than a cup -- into kind of big pieces.)
3 T. brown sugar
1 C chopped tomatoes
2 pounds sauerkraut (I used less -- a package from the food cooperative here.)
salt (I haven't used any yet -- the sauerkraut is salty enough.)
5 peppercorns
2 tsp. caraway seeds
thyme
bay leaf or two
2 C. chicken stock

Heat the butter and oil in a heavy casserole. Add the onions and cook over low heat until light brown. Add the brown sugar and cook for a minute or two.  Alternatively, skip the sugar, or stir it in later if you find the sauerkraut too sour.
Add all the rest of the ingredients. Boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook for two hours (I put the lid on). Stir every 20 minutes.

My recipe goes on to tell how to cook ducks to go with this, but I"m going to brown a sausage and boil a potato and serve it all with mustard.

Mom would fry leftover sauerkraut with mashed potato patties the next day and it was delicious.

Good luck!
Love,
k

Books, food, friends

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

I want to read an hour a day. Books, I mean. I’m finding the earlier the better. Never save it to bedtime. If possible, read right after breakfast. 

Today I didn’t do any of that. Instead, after lunch I sat on the bedroom floor in the corner by the closet where Zing is beginning to take up residence. I had my book (The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan) and pen and I read about Hitler planning to invade Russia in 1941 while Zing curled up on the towel nearby. 

Earlier, Zing and I went to the farmers market, and then I cooked. Jody, my dog-walking friend, and his wife Liz and her service dog Phoebe came to dinner. The more we talked, the more we discovered we have in common. And dinner was good too: chicken with Mom’s barbecue sauce, scalloped potatoes like I make for Christmas, peas, pear-blueberry crisp, and they brought some great wine.

Love,
k

Beef Bourguignon

Dear Joy,

Here's the  recipe I promised. It's not my great-grandmother's exactly, but she has a lot to do with it. My mom, Veronica Krumm, was a great cook. She would often tell us about her grandmother's beef stew, how delightful it smelled, cooking in the oven. Mom was always trying to make something that scrumptious, and she felt she never did. So I am pursuing the elusive French beef stew in the oven. It must smell and taste heavenly. (Mom's grandmother was from Paris, and she married a German -- an atrocity that got her disowned. They left Europe for Ohio, where she continued cooking.) I've had this recipe for more than 40 years, and I think it's from Julia Child.

Beef Bourguignon 

Sauté 6 ounces bacon for two to three minutes, to brown lightly. Take bacon out. Reheat the bacon grease with 1 T. oil (I use olive oil.) until it is almost smoking.

Cut 3 pounds of beef* into 2" cubes. Dry the beef and sauté it until brown. When brown, put it in the dish with the bacon. When it's all brown, put the beef back into the pan. Sprinkle it with 1 t. salt, 1/4 t. pepper, 2 T. flour. Put it in 450° oven for 4 minutes. Stir, and put back in oven for another 4 minutes. Turn the heat down to 325°. Add 3 C. red wine (Chianti is good.), the bacon, enough beef broth to barely cover, 1 T. tomato paste, 2 mashed garlic cloves, 1/2 t. thyme, a crumbled bay leaf. Simmer on top of the stove, then cover and put in the oven until the meat is tender -- 3 to 4 hours, or more. When it is ready, braise**  18 to 24 small onions (I use a bag of frozen, thawed.), and sauté a pound of sliced mushrooms in butter.

When beef is tender, pour the casserole over a sieve into a saucepan. Wash out the casserole and return the meat to it. Put the onions and mushrooms on top. Skim any fat off the sauce and simmer it a minute or so. It should coat a spoon lightly. Taste it! Pour it over the meat and vegetables. If you are serving now, simmer it a couple of minutes, basting with the sauce. You can also cool it and then simmer it 20 minutes before serving.

Serve with buttered carrots and French bread.

*Good meat = good casserole. Rump roast is best. Then chuck. Then sirloin tip.
** Braising means to brown the onions and then cook them until tender.

Beef cooked until tender, right
Onions braising on the left

Mom's leek and potato soup

Mom's recipe card

As the weather chilled, I wanted a comforting soup, and what could be better than Mom's creamy leek and potato soup? I still have her recipe card, and it warms my heart to use it. When I told the women in the family what I was making, they wanted the recipe too -- in her handwriting. So I copied the card and glued the recipe to fresh index cards, which I sealed with matte medium. They love having the recipe, and -- even more -- this dear memento of Mom, in her own script.

Mom's Leek and Potato Soup

3 to 4 cups peeled potatoes, sliced or diced
3 cups thinly sliced leeks, mostly white part
1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken broth (canned is OK)
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 T. soft butter
2 to 3 tsp. minced parsley

Simmer vegetables and broth together, partially covered, until vegetables are very tender. Mash the potatoes with a fork.  (I use an immersible blender.) Season with salt and pepper. Set aside, uncovered, until ready to serve.

Reheat to simmer just before serving, then add cream and butter. (You can skip cream and butter, but it will taste different.) Heat -- do not boil. Decorate with parsley.

*Before mashing vegetables, cook until you think it is the right consistency. If too liquid, cook it down before mashing.

Popovers from the past

Yesterday's anticipation of Cheese Gougères has led to today's recipe for good old popovers. Here, Mary, as you requested, is Mom's recipe. I remember them filled with melting butter (Please don't remind me that it was really margarine!) and homemade strawberry jam.

Mom's Popovers

Sift:
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Beat:
3 eggs

Add:
1 1/2 C. milk

Stir eggs and milk into the flour mixture.
Beat thoroughly.

Fill muffin pans 2/3 full. (Recipe doesn't say anything about greasing them, and I can't remember ... but can't hurt to grease the pans.)

Bake at 450° for 15 minutes, then at 350° for 20 minutes more.  I can't really make out that last number. My recipe card is tattered and ripped there. It looks very much like a 20, but it could be 30. Check after 20.

This is even quicker than gougères. Send photos!

Making my own birthday cake

Is it pathetic to make your own birthday cake?

Not at all.

C has bought me many cakes, but we both agree mine are better. Besides, it's days before my birthday. I have a habit of celebrating the entire month of November -- with the ultimate goal of celebrating all year long when I get really smart. Thus, today's dessert (Dinner was leftovers), inspired by Smitten Kitchen and my mother. The SKithchen blog suggests a cake topped with bittersweet chocolate and pears chopped small. Instead of her recipe, I made Mom's sponge cake and topped it with 3/4 C. bittersweet chocolate chips and three Bartlett pears chopped smaller than bite-size. It took 45 minutes to bake, more than Mom's recipe. The pears are still a little hard. Next time (and there WILL be a next time!) I will let the pears ripen well, or soften them in the microwave before adding them to the cake. I considered using Kallebut chocolate, but Ghirardelli bittersweet  chips are perfect. It's festive and delicious. Don't wait for a birthday!

Mom's sponge cake with pears and chocolate

1 C. sifted flour

1 tsp. baking powder

dash salt

1/2 C. milk

1 T. butter

2 eggs

1 C. sugar

3/4 C. bittersweet chocolate chips 

3 soft pears, chopped

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Scald milk with the butter. Let butter melt. (I use a glass measuring cup & put it in the microwave until little bubbles form on the sides, but it doesn't boil. Takes less than a minute.)
3. Beat the eggs a lot, until they lose that eggy look & become light.
4. Gradually beat in the sugar.
5. Then add the dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed.
6. Add hot milk with butter & vanilla.
7. Pour into buttered & floured 9" cake pan (I used a skillet.)  Bake 30 min. at 350° (45 minutes for pear and chocolate cake).
8. Top with 3/4 C. bittersweet chocolate chips and 3 soft pears, chopped. These will sink into the cake. 
9. Cool & then remove cake from the pan. (Don't use a skillet if you plan to remove the cake from the pan.),
10. For Boston Cream Pie split the cooled cake carefully with a long serrated knife & spread bottom layer with cream. Put second layer on top of the cream. Decorate with powdered sugar or a thin chocolate glaze.

Mom's canapés and cream puffs

There's no photo because we ate them. The blue cheese cream puffs, not the photos.

I made them for friends who stopped by yesterday. As we cleaned up afterward,  C and I finished the last two -- and then I remembered I'd meant to take a picture. Oh, well. You can imagine how they look: lopsided airy buttons oozing cheese. Everybody loved how they taste.

A long time ago Mom made cream puffs with this recipe. She'd fill them with homemade vanilla pudding and top them with chocolate glaze. It is amazing to me that we considered this an ordinary dessert.

Sometimes for a cocktail party she'd make the dough into tiny puffs, filled with a mixture of cream cheese, blue cheese, a little grated onion, and some half and half.

As we were planning our New Year party this year (last year??),  I saw the documentar,  Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which is a celebration of doing one thing right. It made me want to go back to old recipes like Mom's cream puffs.

Mom's Cream Puffs

In a saucepan, heat to boiling:
1 C. water
1/2 C. butter
Stir in:
1 C. flour.
Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. This doesn't take very long, about a minute.

Put dough into bowl of your mixer and let it cool a little bit. You are going to add eggs, and you don't want them to start cooking when they hit the hot dough.

Mix in four eggs one at a time. Beat until smooth.

Drop the dough onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, leaving at least an inch between them. For the canapés, I used a 1 T.  cookie scoop. If you're making dessert puffs, you can make them bigger. Mom made hers kind of roundish; you can also make them into long finger shapes. I filled two cookie sheets.

Bake at 425° for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375° for 10 more minutes. I actually forgot them and added a few more minutes, with no bad results.

Right away slit the puffs and put them back into the oven, which has been turned off. Prop open the oven door and leave them there for about 45 minutes so they dry out. My new Baking Illustrated, by the editors of Cook's Illustrated magazine, says that at this point you can keep them at room temperature for a day or freeze them for a month. I stored them in a cookie jar overnight. In the morning I warmed up the oven to 375° again and warmed them for about 5 minutes. This kind of revived them. When cool, I filled each one a spoonful of this mixture:

16 ounces cream cheese, beaten with good blue cheese to taste (quite a bit)

As I said, Mom used to add a whiff of onion juice and some cream. I skipped the onion because not everyone likes the taste, and I forgot about the cream. But next time I'm adding it. This made just enough to fill all the puffs generously. I forgot to count them.

Another time I'm going to make tiny puffs filled with pudding and frosted with chocolate. Really, this is not too much trouble if you make the puffs the night before.

Meyer lemons

I barely knew about Meyer lemons until Ed left a bag of them on our porch soon after we moved to Tallahassee. Our neighbor was rich in lemons and bluebirds, and he loved to share both. Once when I was visiting him and his wife in their backyard, he placed a tiny worm in my hand, assuring me it wasn't squishy. When I opened my palm and held it out, a bluebird swooped down from the bushes to eat the worm. A tiny rose-breasted bluebird perched on my hand!

I felt much the same amazement when I learned about Ed's precious Meyer lemons. They are much desired by cooks. When Ed died last spring I planted a Meyer lemon tree out near our shed in his honor. This season it gave us two big yellow fruits. Thanks to Ed's family, we still enjoy his lemons too. This week I mailed some to family in Ohio. "Give us recipes!" they said. So:

In general, I use Meyers  as I would any other lemon. Here's a video from a grove in California with some useful storage ideas.

I also make Meyer Lemon Marmalade. Here's the recipe -- my adjustments to an Epicurious recipe.

A friend tried Smitten Kitchen's Lemon Cake. She liked it but didn't rave.

I'm sure Mom's sponge cake is better. Follow the suggestion midway down for dousing it with lemon syrup.

Here's an LA Times piece with 100 things to do with a Meyer lemon.

Candied nuts

Dear Gretchen,
I lost the recipe you wanted. Mom's candied walnuts were great, and I know I've got the recipe around here somewhere. But I haven't found it yet.
So I looked for a similar recipe online and I think here's a better one. The coating's not as thick as I remember Mom's was, but these are delicious and easy. I made them last night, with pecans and dark brown sugar. It was so easy and quick and so delicious. There--I've said it again! I put  1 1/2 C. pecans and 1/2 C. brown sugar into my heavy copper saucepan and cooked over medium flame for five minutes, stirring all the time.

Next time I could try plain brown sugar and toast the nuts ahead of time, but why mess with perfection?
(Dec. 2 -- I just did this -- toast pecans and use plain brown sugar -- and it's definitely down on the flavor scale. I'm sticking to dark brown sugar for this, and, to my surprise, I won't even toast the pecans. This time I think that extra layer of flavor fights with the simple sweet perfection.)

This is another recipe, probably more like Mom's. But I think Mom would choose the new recipe.

The law of slaw

A friend on chemotherapy told me that not much food appeals to her, but for some reason her eyes lit up when I said "coleslaw." I used The Zen of Slaw for starters, then improvised. Here's their guide for a pound of shredded cabbage and one carrot:

1 tablespoon distilled vinegar

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon celery seeds (not celery salt)

I had a whole cabbage, so I doubled this, using all the mayonnaise we had, without measuring. Then I added a cup of sour cream so I wouldn't have to go to the store for more mayo. 

If you like slaw without mayonnaise, try Mom's slaw. 

Mom's Peach Pie

When I told Mom I was making her peach pie, she said, "That's not my recipe -- I got it from Betty McGlone. All the good recipes come from somewhere." Thanks, Betty! I hardly ever make pie any more, but this is so good I make it at least once a year. Today I had frozen peaches.

First, make the crust. Put it in a 9" pie pan.

Peel and slice peaches (good ones -- so many are tasteless) to make a mound on the unbaked crust.

Mix this and pour it over:

Sauce for Peach Pie

1/3 C. melted butter
1/4 C. + 1 T. flour (5 T. in all) mixed with 1 1/4 C. sugar
1 beaten egg
cinnamon to taste (I use a lot.)
1 t. vanilla

This is for an 8" pan. Mom uses 1 1/2 recipe for 9".  The sauce will bubble over, so put a foil-lined cookie sheet on the shelf below to catch the drips.

Bake at 375° until the center bubbles, about 1 1/2 hr.

Mom's Nut Rolls

When we lived in Steubenville, Ohio, we had many Polish friends, & they made nut rolls. Mom tried lots of their recipes. I remember large ones sliced into pinwheels. Some were heavy & bread-y, & some were less than sweet. Then Mom found these.

Mom's Nut Rolls

(I usually make half this recipe.)

1. Cut 5 C. flour into 1/2 pound sweet butter. (I use the food processor.)

2. Add 1 tsp. salt.

3. Mound this on wax paper. Shape a hole in the center. Into this break 3 eggs. Mix with your hands.

4. Soften 1 1/2 envelopes dry yeast (or 1 1/2 cake) in 1 C. canned milk or heavy cream. (I prefer the cream .) Add this to the flour, half at a time. Mix with your hands.

5. Then roll into a big ball & wrap in wax paper. Keep overnight in the refrigerator.

6. The next day, make the filling. Mix 1 1/4 C. toasted walnuts, ground. I use the Mouli mill -- I like doing it by hand; think this makes a better texture than grinding in the food processor. Mix the ground nuts with 1/2 C. sugar.

7. Roll out the dough on wax paper heavily covered with granulated sugar. Cut into squares.

8. Add 1 tsp. or more of the filling, press it down into the dough, & roll up, shaping into crescents. Place on parchment-covered cookie sheet. (Cookies can be frozen at this point.)

9. Sprinkle generously with sparkling sugar crystals. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes, or until light brown at edges.

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce & Meatballs too

Mario Batali had me hooked on his marinara sauce. So easy & good. The other day Batali let me down. (He wasn't in the pantry where he belongs.) I made Mom's recipe instead, & I'm shocked at myself for forgetting how simple & delicious it is. You do need time to watch it cook, but a crock pot could help. Marzetti is now a big company, but back then it was a nice Italian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. I think Mom got this recipe from the Columbus Dispatch.

Marzetti Spaghetti Sauce

Brown 2 cloves garlic in olive oil. Add 2 cans tomato paste. (I used about half a tube, maybe more.) Cook a little, stirring. Add 2 cans strained tomatoes & 3 cans water (I don't think I used quite this much water. I just rinsed out the cans.), salt and pepper to taste, 3 T. chopped parsley, & a little sugar. (There's a sugar/no sugar rift; omit it if you must.) Cook & cook & cook. (That's what Mom's recipe says.) I simmered it a couple hours. I tasted it early on & it needed more garlic, so I sautéed a huge clove in olive oil & added it. Perfection!

Mom used to stir in some cheese at the end. She got this idea from our Italian neighbors in Steubenville.

If you like, add these meatballs an hour before serving:

Marzetti Meatballs

Mix together:

1 lb. ground beef

1/2 C. bread crumbs

1/4 C. grated cheese (Mom used Velveeta. Don't knock it -- tasted great.)

1/8 C. chopped parsley

1 clove garlic

salt, pepper

Rose Cake

I

• 
  

I don't really like roses – it's the thorns! – but I fell in love with rose ice cream at a Greek ice cream shop in Savannah. It's pink, with elusive flavor. Then I tasted iced tea with rose syrup in New Orleans, & found a similar version here in Tallahassee. (The one in New Orleans had a handful of pistachios in the drink too.) Then I found a small blue jar of Rose Flower Water* in the refrigerator. I have no idea how long it's been there, but it's still effective in this recipe for rose syrup from Epicurious. They say put it on fruit, which I've done, deliciously. This time it's on Mom's sponge cake. I used more sugar –1 1/2 cups. Just pierce the cake with fork tines while it's still warm, & pour the syrup over.

*I think I got the Rose Flower Water in a drug store; I have faint memories... but you can find it at specialty groceries like Fresh Market, & probably at Mideastern shops as well.

• Rose Water Syrup
• 
  
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 teaspoon rose water

Boil water with sugar over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Add cinnamon stick. Turn heat up to medium-high & boil until you have about 1 cup. Stir in rose water. I keep the syrup in the refrigerator in an old mayonnaise jar.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fresh-Fruit-with-Rose-Water-Syrup-5878#ixzz0ztpfmjAo

Boston Cream Pie

All I have to do is say it's my mom's recipe: you know it's delicious.

Boston Cream Pie is festive but it's not hard to make. It's Mom's sponge cake, split & filled with vanilla cream, then topped with chocolate glaze. The heart pan made it special; I made it Wednesday for a little girl we love.

Mom's Sponge Cake

1 C. sifted flour

1 tsp. baking powder

dash salt

1/2 C. milk

1 T. butter

2 eggs

1 C. sugar

1. Sift dry ingredients together.
2. Scald milk with the butter. Let butter melt. (I use a glass measuring cup & put it in the microwave until little bubbles form on the sides, but it doesn't boil. Takes less than a minute.)
3. Beat the eggs a lot, until they lose that eggy look & become light.
4. Gradually beat in the sugar.
5. Then add the dry ingredients. Stir until just mixed.
6. Add hot milk with butter & vanilla.
7. Pour into buttered & floured 9" cake pan (I used a heart-shaped pan.) Mom often used a skillet (an 8" iron skillet or a frying pan that is about that size. Mine is 7 1/2" at the base and 10 1/2" at the top.) Bake 30 min. at 350°.
8. Cool & then remove cake from the pan. (Don't use a skillet if you plan to remove the cake from the pan.),
9. For Boston Cream Pie split the cooled cake carefully with a long serrated knife & spread bottom layer with cream. Put second layer on top of the cream. Decorate with powdered sugar or a thin chocolate glaze.

*Other Sponge Cake options from Mom:

• Pierce the top (a lot) with fork tines as soon as the cake comes out of the oven & immediately pour lemon syrup (made with equal parts lemon juice & sugar, maybe a half cup of each, that you boil until the sugar melts) over it so it seeps into the cake.
• Lightly sprinkle sugar on the buttered pan, top with two peeled & thinly sliced pears or apples, & pour the cake batter on top.
• In a skillet, melt a little butter, add enough brown sugar to cover the bottom of the pan, & melt it. Then add fruit such as pineapple (fresh is best). Pour the cake batter on top for Upside-down Cake.

Mom's Cream Filling

Mix together in saucepan:

• 2 tbl. flour
• 2 tbl cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C. sugar
• lump of butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Add 2 C. milk. Cook over moderate heat until thick, stirring all the while or it will burn.
2. Remove from stove.
3. Add 1 egg, this way: Crack the egg into a little bowl & beat it. Then take a teaspoon or so of the still-hot cream & beat it into the egg. Then the egg is kind of prepared for the heat & is less likely to curdle. Mix the egg into the pudding. Stir in quickly & well. This is the trickiest step of making a pudding. If you don't do it right, the egg will start to turn to scrambled eggs. Don't worry – it's not hard to do it right, but it does take patience.
4. Put the mixture back onto the stove & cook 3 minutes longer, stirring all the while.
5. Remove from the heat & stir in the lump of butter & vanilla.
6. Cool.

*You can make chocolate cream by adding cocoa to the sugar mixture, or by stirring in good chocolate at the last step. If you use brown sugar you've got butterscotch pudding. I've never combined the two, but doesn't that sound good?

Chocolate Glaze

It's trial & error here: I mix some confectioner's sugar with some cocoa & add some water, a little at a time. Then I beat the lumps out.

You could also melt bittersweet chocolate with a lump of butter.

Mom's slaw

Mom never bought ready-cut slaw. And she's right – cutting your own is not that hard, & it's better because it's all different sizes, not uniformly perfect like the machine-cut stuff. Besides, you can say, "I did it myself." Her dressing is perfect, sweet-sour, & easy.

Mom's slaw dressing

Sprinkle 1/2 C. sugar (I use about 1/4 C.) over 1/2 head thin-sliced cabbage.

Add 1 green pepper & 1 green onion, chopped. (Sometimes I skip this. Sometimes I grate in a little regular onion.)

In a small pan mix 1/3 C. vinegar, 1/3 C. oil (I use corn oil.), 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. celery seed, 1/2 t. dry mustard. Bring it to a boil. Pour over the slaw. That's it. If you eat it right away it will be crispy, but it keeps well if you don't mind soggy slaw. Clark prefers it that way.

Variation: Mom would sometimes fry a few strips of bacon & use the drippings instead of the oil. Take out the bacon & drain it. Add the rest of the dressing ingredients to the skillet & bring to a boil. After you pour it on the cabbage, mix, & add the crumbled bacon.